Global Semiconductor industry leading indicator up in August

Economic research firm e-forecasting.com announced that their Global Semiconductor industry leading indicator, World-SLI, rose in August.

The new indicator, comparable to the company's global regional semiconductor industry indicators for Europe, Asia Pacific, North America and Japan, is a forward-looking composite index that forecasts six months ahead, on average, business activity for the global market for semiconductors. All indicators, including the World-SLI, are released on a monthly basis.

Following an increase of 4.0 percent in July, the Global semiconductor leading indicator went up 3.6 percent in August to a reading of 191.3. The index was set to average 100 in 2000.

"A global recovery for the semiconductor industry is fast approaching. This worldwide semiconductor industry leading indicator has now gone up for seven months in a row, which is more than the average lead time of the indicator," commented Maria Simos, CEO of e-forecasting.com. "Asia Pacific is the forerunner of this recovery, where we are reporting explosive growth in the leading indicator."

Looking at the six-month growth rate of the leading indicator - which is used in business cycle analysis for both signaling impending turning points in business activity and as a recession monitor, the semiconductor leading indicator rose 26.9 percent in August 2009, after an increase of 19.1 percent in July. Consecutive negative values in the six-month growth rate predict an end to an economic expansion and the beginning of an upcoming recession.

e-forecasting.com, an international economic research and consulting firm, offers forecasts of the economic environment using proprietary real-time economic indicators and produces company and industry-specific leading indicators for its clients. In cooperation with its affiliate, Infometrica, Inc., e-forecasting.com works with business publications and clients across the globe to provide industry, country and state-level economic content on a monthly and quarterly basis thus their predictive intelligence input is used by practitioners around the world.

For complimentary chart to accompany this, or further information: www.e-forecasting.com